


Ally Cats and Hairpins

by Phi_ScarlaDraconian



Series: Relationship Status: Complicated [6]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Be careful what you say, Grant Ward Deserved Better, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-10-28 18:18:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10836753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phi_ScarlaDraconian/pseuds/Phi_ScarlaDraconian
Summary: Sometimes it just takes a sandwich to break the ice.Edit: Finished out Chapter 1....





	1. Breaking the Ice with a Turkey Club

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a huge fan of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. And then the writers murdered Grant off...twice. After they admitted that his problem wasn't not caring, but that he cared too much. So this is my attempt at a #GrantWardDeservedBetter by giving him a person to care for who knows his faults and cares right back.

"Room service."

Whatever Skye was expecting when the T-1000 and Agent Accountant left, it was not a female suit coming in with a plate of sandwiches of all things.

And saying room service? What?

"I have a turkey club here for you while the tool-bag and his handyman figure out their next angle of questioning. I thought you might be hungry, considering you might not have had time to eat when they kidnapped you," the female agent said with a creepily pleasant smile.

"And what's in the turkey club?" Skye asked with a healthy amount of skepticism.

"Turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayo on lightly toasted white bread," the agent responded, while not even seeming to register Skye's suspicious tone.

"Yeah, but what else?" Skye said while leaning back and crossing her arms. She was really starting to get tired of the smiling woman. She seemed way too nice to be part of a big government agency…

"Don't worry, it's not drugged. When Agent Coulson decides to use drugs, there will be needles," the turkey club bearing agent said, still smiling. "And just between you and me, Skye, I think that's the direction he's heading in."

"And why should I trust you? I don't even know your name," Skye demanded.

At that, the woman seemed to just smile wider. "I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Alison Murdock, Agent of SHIELD, though most people just call me Ally. I was raised with my twin brother by our single dad until he died when we were nine years old. When our mother failed to show up to take us in we were sent to live at St Agnes' Orphanage in Hell's Kitchen. My brother and I finished high school there and went to college on scholarships, him in Law and I went into Cryptology and language arts. Which is what I do in SHIELD. I translate messages and crack encryptions, and I am very good at it. I just need enough time, but something tells me that we don't have very much of it before your guy gets in way too far over his head," the so named Agent Murdock had gone from smiling and bright to blank faced and serious, the change so startling that Skye didn't know how to react right away.

"And that really didn't answer my question about how I can trust you," Skye responded mulishly.

"That's not a question I can actually answer for you," Agent Murdock told her, seemingly unimpressed with Skye's growing frustration. "I gave you information that may or may not help you in answering it yourself. You need to figure out if it was enough, and if it wasn't, then you need to figure out what information you do need and what questions you need to ask to get it."

"Okay…do you trust SHIELD?" Skye asked her.

"No," the agent answered promptly.

"What? But…you work for SHIELD…" Skye stuttered out, completely confused.

"And do you trust the Rising Tide, including every person who claims membership, in all things?" the agent asked.

"What? I…well, no, but…"

"Then why should I be expected to trust an organization, any organization, just because I work for, support or otherwise belong to it? Any group is only as trustworthy as the members who hold the cards. The larger that organization is, the larger the deck to draw from and the more people who have a hand, both large and small. I trust people, and Agent Coulson is one of them. I'd trust him with my brother, and Agent Coulson is the one with the cards in this situation." Agent Murdock explained.

"Wow, you'd trust him with Matt? That's…"

"Honestly, I don't even trust Matt with his own safety all the time. The idiot's a daredevil who likes to pick fights," Agent Murdock said with an exaggerated eye roll.

"What does Matt think of you being in SHIELD?" Skye asked eagerly.

"He has his issues with the Civil Rights side of things, but with an organization like SHIELD there's always going to be a knife's edge of balance between ethics and the mission."

"But you say I can trust Coulson?" Skye clarified.

"I said I do, whether you think you can trust my judgment of Agent Coulson's character or not is still entirely up to you." Agent Murdock responded.

"Alright…okay. Sure, let's talk to Coulson." Skye said after thinking a bit.

"Good, finish your sandwich, Mary, while I tell the boss-man the good news and…" Agent Murdock said chirpily as she got up to head to the door.

"Wait! How did you…I said my name was Skye…"

"Well, it was just an educated guess until you said Matt's name when I hadn't said it myself. You should probably pay better attention to what's actually been said. Now finish your sandwich Hairpin," Ally told Skye. "Welcome to spy life, where questions are answered often by what's not said by whom."

"Why do you call me that?"

"You've had nearly a decade and google, Hairpin, if you still haven't figured it out, I'm not going to answer it for you. Honestly, I'm kind of surprised you haven't yet," and with that Agent Murdock breezed out of the door, leaving Skye frustrated with not only herself.

"That was excellent work, Agent Murdock," Coulson told Ally as she walked back into the conference area.

"Yes, sir. It was, wasn't it?"

* * *

"Michael Peterson, factory worker, married, one kid.  Gets injured, gets laid off, wife jumps ship.  Good guy, bad breaks," Agent Coulson stated as the scanned ID showed the info on the table screen.  "Best guess is, someone tells him they can make him strong again, make him super," he continued as he reached the head of the table and crossed his arm.

"Who has the tech to do that, and why would they want to?" asked May.

"Take your pick," Ally said just before Grant continued with, "agencies and governments have been trying to recreate Project: Rebirth since the second world war."

"And with that, Fitz, what do we have from the security footage from before the blast?" Agent Coulson said as he walked around the table.

At that, Leopold Fitz brought up grainy footage of a man in a gray long-sleeved shirt seemingly yelling at a man in a lab coat trying to calm him down.

"What are we seeing?" Agent May asked.

"Well, the man is angry at the other man," Fitz replied.

"The data is very corrupt," Jemma Simmons said after a mild 'is there more?' pause.

"Yeah, like cold war Russia corrupt.  I can't sync the time code without…" Fitz continued.

"What if you had the audio?" Skye asked.  "I was…running surveillance on the lab.  I had my shotgun mic pointed at the window before the blast.  The digital file's in my van, but there's too much background noise for me, but you could probably--"

After a short discussion between FitzSimmons, they both agreed that Fitz definitely could get the final images from the file.

"Your van's here," Coulson told Skye, "but you were right--we couldn't decrypt the files."

"The encryption's coupled to the GPS," Skye explained.  "Get my van back to that alley, and then I'm in business."

"Field trip!" Ally shouted, far too excited.  She promptly clasped Skye's arm and started dragging her to the door.

"Actually, I was thinking of having Agent May…" Coulson tried.

"Coulson, I'm the only person on the team that Hairpin knows well enough to pull casual off with.  She's offered him help and there's a chance that he'll seek her out for that help," Ally explained.  "With him acting irrational, we don't need to rile him up with scary suits, we need to calm him down.  Hairpin and I can be just two old friends bumping into each other and catching up," Ally said with a frankly disturbingly cheerful smile.

"Well, at least you have a good argument," Coulson acquiesced.

With that, Ally dragged Skye out to her van so they could get on their way.


	2. It's Always the Quiet Ones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Ally and Skye are both helpful and Grant shows his true colors.

"Why did you want S.H.I.E.L.D. to find you, Skye?" Ally asked from the driver's seat of the van as Skye finished sending the audio file.

"I...I don't know what you're talking about," Skye hedged.

"Cut the shit, Skye," Ally demanded.  "We both know you're too good to have been caught accidentally, and I've listened to your broadcasts.  They cut a fine line between not-a-bother and being-silenced-permanently levels of attention grabbing."  At that, Ally turned around in the driver's seat to give Skye a truly unimpressed stare.

Skye sighed and then nervously fidgeted for a moment.  "You know how I was just left on the doorstep at the orphanage when I was only a few days old, right?"  After Ally nodded, Skye continued, "I found a file about it.  It...it was redacted by S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Seriously?" Ally asked.  At Skye's nod, she continued, "I have some connections in the records department, I could take a look on the down-low and see what I can find."

"Really?" Skye all but choked out.  "You'd really do something like that for me?"

"Well, of course," Ally replied.  "If anyone deserves to know that information, it'd be you, wouldn't it?"  With that, Ally turned back around to put the van back into gear.  "Close up and let's get going, alright?"

Just as Skye was about to close the van door, a hand came out and stopped her.  "Oh, um..." Skye stuttered out.

"That offer to help still open?" Mike Peterson asked as he stepped into view.

* * *

 "Now, using motion estimation, Bayesian inference, a beam splitter, and a little diffraction theory, our mystery man appears," Fitz said as a hologram came to life in the bus's bay.  "It's like magic.  But it's--it's science."

"What are we looking at?" May asked as they looked at the hologram Fitz has rigged up from the security cam footage with Skye's audio file.

"Well, we are looking at a hologram depicting a man angry at another man," Grant said, gesturing between the two holographic subjects.

"You've spent _far_ too much time with Agent Thompson," Coulson said after the lengthy pause while the rest of those present stared at the troll who was far too pleased with himself.  "Why are you part of this team again?"

"Because there are few agents in S.H.I.E.L.D. as capable as I am at snapping necks that aren't already part of established teams, retired from field-work or on the list of those 'not supposed to know Agent Coulson is alive', which is really stupid considering one of those has a proven track record of hacking S.H.I.E.L.D. and another is the preeminent spy capable of ferreting out secrets," Grant said gleefully while bouncing on his toes.

"Let's just get on with this," May gritted out.

With that, the hologram started to play.

_"…to please calm down.  Just let me check your vitals," the holographic doctor started._

_"I feel fine.  I want to feel more," the angry hologram said as he placed a case down on the counter top.  "Where's the doctor?  Where is she?!"_

_"I-if you don't settle down, I-I'll have you sedated," the doctor replied._

_"Where is she?!" the angry hologram yelled as he smashed a chair onto the other countertop._

"Wait, back up.  What's that on his arm?" Coulson asks.  At his comment, Fitz rewound to just before the man smashes the chair against the countertop, exposing the odd item attached to the inside of his forearm.

"That looks like a centipede," Grant says, an ill feeling settling in the pit of his stomach.

"It's an intravenous filter for his blood," Simmons interjected.  "This goo, sir--very similar to the serum Dr. Erskine developed in the forties for the…"

"Super soldiers," Coulson finished for her.

"I'm reading alien metal, gamma radiation, the serum--every known source of superpower thrown in a blender," Simmons finished.

"Well, now we know who…" May said.

"We need to see the origin of the blast," Coulson told Fitz, "run it back from the last point recorded."

When the image wound back to show the source of the explosion, it became clear that it had been the man himself.

"Extremis, it's new," Coulson said, looking at the face of the man turned bomb.  "Completely unstable."

"Poor man didn't bring an explosive," Simmons breathed out, "and Mike has the same stuff in his system."

"And by the looks of it, a lot more," May stated.

"So any minute now, Mike is gonna--" Fitz started.

"He'll take out anyone within a two-block radius," Simmons finished.

"I'll let Ally know what we've learned," Grant said as he started up the stairs. He paused about halfway up the stairs and then turned back, "I know Agent Thompson has been working on solutions to the more volatile aspects of that formula, you could reach out to him for anything that might help."

* * *

"Well, Skye is the helpful sort," Ally said to the van's newcomer.  "Any offer of help she's put out should still be open."

"And who are you?" Mike asked the woman sitting in the driver's seat.

"Ally Murdock," Ally said easily and with a bright guileless smile.  "I grew up with Hairpin in the same orphanage, and I just happened to bump into her today and we've been catching up since."

"Yeah, I dated her brother for a few months in high school..." Skye said when Mike turned back to her.

"Yeah, she did," Ally said, her smile still disgustingly bright and chipper.

"Look, I'm just here so that Skye can help us," Mike said.

"Us?" Skye asked.

"Yeah, us," Mike said as he pulled a young boy into view.  Lifting the boy up into the van, Mike asked him, "What are we?"

"We're a team," the boy answered.

"So...um, what type of help did you want, Mike?" Skye asked the man.

Just as Mike was about to answer, a ringing phone broke the silence.  Looking down at the phone in here hand, Ally said, "oh! One sec, I have to take this."

"Hey Brett!" she greeted her caller brightly, getting out of the van and walking a few steps away.

_"Hey Ally,"_ Grant replied.

"What did you find out about that thing we've been looking for?"

_"Your old boss' girlfriend picked it up last Christmas."_

"The bombshell?"

_"Precisely."_

"Well that bridge is burned.  Where should we meet for dinner?"

_"You know that curry place two blocks down from the hotel?"_

"Yep, I can meet you there in four hours.  We can discuss what to get Mattie for his birthday then."

_"We might have to meet earlier than that."_

"Alright, I'll let you know if something changes."

_"Stay safe."_

"You too."

 As Ally walked back to the van, she noticed that Skye seemed to be getting more bothered by something.  "Is anyone hungry for lunch?  My treat," she offered.

"I don't want charity," Mike started.

"Who said anything about charity?  I'm hungry and I hate eating alone," Ally replied.  "I've found it's just easier offer to treat others to lunch.  Tell you what, you can come with me and carry the bags of takeout while Skye works on what you came to get help with."

"Well..." Mike hedged.

"And you can keep me company by gushing about our adorable children at each other," she said while pulling up a picture of a little blond boy standing at a zoo exhibit on her phone.

 "You're a mom?!" Skye burst out.  "When did you become a mom?"

"Six years ago...didn't I already gush at you about my little Mattie?"

"Um...no?"

"Ahhh...I'll gush at you later then," Ally said.  "Come on Mike, let's go get lunch," Ally grabbed Mike's arm and started dragging him along back down the alley-way, leaving Skye and Ace in the van.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sure it's unfinished looking, but I just WANT THIS OUT DAMNIT....  
> If you have any suggestions on polishing, I'd be so thankful and totally give you mentions.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry, this is fairly incomplete, I started with setting up the dialogue, and then filling in from there. If you have any suggestions on making this more complete, please PM me and I will be happy to give you mentions. I'm working on a massively expanded universe for this, and comments would feed me eternally. I'm currently working with a beta reader going by the name Ashyboymarvel, who's been a big help and all that.


End file.
